Upfront

May2007

Derector’s Cut

“I’m a big accessories queen,” admits
Linda Derector. A quick look around
her small, self-named SoHo store at
the rows of vintage eyewear and costume
jewelry confirms her statement.
The red walls, glass shelves and gilded
mirrors make both the old and new
frames look glitzy and glamorous.
Vintage shapes from John-Paul
Gautier, Persol, Anglo-American,
Alain Mikli, Robert la Roche,
Montana, Francois Pinton and
Cazal sit next to new and
unknown designers like Hunau
and Auttica Venetta. The average
price tag is around $250, but
Derector has been known to
sell pairs for up to $3,500.

Linda Derector never imagined she’d
be in the eyewear business. She spent
most of her career in the fashion industry,
including a stint at Bergdorf
Goodman as a personal shopper. But
eyewear was always an interest. “I
always wore glasses,” she says. “I had
one for every outfit.” She began buying
eyewear wholesale when retailers
went out of business, eventually amassing
so many she began to resell them.
To her, it was something new and fun
to do. “And all of a sudden I’m in the
eyewear business,” she concludes.

Even with a mere 2,000 of her 6,000
pair archive of eyewear on display, there
are frames in every nook and cranny of
the store. Surprisingly, Derector stocks
more ophthalmic than sunwear, and she
sells a majority of her frames to men. As
if by example, one man wanders
around the store in
awe, pulling out drawers and trying on
different styles. He hesitates longer than
usual in front of the aviator display.

“I thought you didn’t want another pair
of aviators,” Derector reminds him, gesturing
to the pair he’s already wearing.
“I know,” he responds, “but these
are all so cool.”
Derector sells all her frames from a
fashion standpoint. “You can completely
change a person’s appearance
with eyewear,” she claims. Her uncanny
knack of matching people with
flattering eyewear has already netted
her clients from all over New York,
both celebrity and not. Her plans for
the future include hiring an optician
and designing her own collection of
eyewear. Not that she has any
empty space to fill. She gestures
around the store
and laughs. “If you
can’t find a pair of
glasses in here, you
didn’t really want new
glasses.”